Trump: ‘I’m not downplaying’ AI risks

President Trump pushed back on reports he is “downplaying” artificial intelligence (AI) risks after industry leaders over the weekend pressed for slowing down the development of the technology.

“This week, again, there’s been so much concern about AI. Have you heard directly from any of these AI tech leaders? And you seemed to downplay some of the concerns that we’ve heard —” a reporter asked the president Sunday aboard Air Force One .

“No, I’m not downplaying,” Trump cut in. “But it’s going to be more good than bad, by a lot.”

Earlier in the day, while the president was at a golf tournament in Ireland, Trump was asked about slowing down AI development or increasing regulation of the industry.

“Well, I’ll say this: we’re leading China in AI. We’re the most sophisticated country in the world, and frankly, I want to keep it that way because whoever wins AI wins,” the president said.

“And we can put guardrails, we can do this and that, but, I think you have a lot of negative forces that are bringing it up that shouldn’t be bringing it up, and they’re bringing up things that won’t happen,” he added.

On Saturday. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei argued AI development needed to slow down to give space for the implementation of necessary risk prevention safeguards, with fellow tech moguls OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and billionaire Elon Musk backing him up.

“We must slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI models,” Amodei wrote in a blog post. “Progress will still seem fast, and we must make wise use of the time we gain.”

The Anthropic CEO recommended that AI companies quickly undertake measures aimed at “pacing” the development of models and warned of potentially grim consequences if the technology does not have brakes.

“To be clear, pacing does not mean halting model training or technical progress, but ensuring companies take adequate time to align and safeguard their models, and for third party evaluators to confirm this,” he continued. “Our pacing framework is an attempt to further strengthen our commitment to safety and encourage a race to the top.”

The conversation also comes as lawmakers on both sides of the aisle push for more briefings and safeguards around the emerging technology. Though some, like House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), have urged others not to panic.

Earlier this month, a study from a group of current and former Anthropic researchers offered a stark warning , suggesting the AI they are working on could destroy humanity .